QBank FAQs
What is the ClassEval Question Bank (QBank)?
The QBank is an ever-growing, searchable, online catalogue of questions/items designed to use in student evaluation of a course. Questions in the QBank are sorted into various topics, such as those related to the design of the course (e.g. expectations and objectives of the course, reading and supplemental material), the instructor delivery of the course (e.g., ability to explain/clarify, enthusiasm), instructional assessment and feedback (e.g., usefulness to student, grading), and student outcomes (e.g., general content competency, personal growth).
Why have a QBank?
The QBank serves as a repository for ClassEval questions, and serves two primary purposes. First, it provides a catalogue of possible questions to ask students about a given course or instructor. Many of the questions have been drawn from resources related to course evaluations, and have been used at other institutions. Others will be added over time by instructors at NC State. Second, the QBank stores questions while staff review them for typos and methodological problems (see below).
Do I have to use the QBank?
If you do not want to include any unique questions on your course-specific ClassEvals, you don't need the QBank. However, if you want to include unique questions, they must be included in the QBank. If a question is already listed in the QBank, you do not have to add it. When the time comes for adding unique questions to your course-specific ClassEvals, you may only select questions from the QBank.
What types of questions are in the QBank?
Items in the initial version of the QBank are necessarily generic in nature. However, it is fully anticipated that questions specific to a given course, assignment, learning objective, etc., will be added to the QBank.
The QBank includes both closed-end (forced-choice) and open-end questions.
All closed-end questions/items in the QBank are worded to correspond with a 5 point "agree - disagree" scale ("strongly agree," "agree," "neither agree nor disagree," "disagree," "strongly disagree"). There is also a "don't know/not applicable" response option. There are no exceptions to the use of this scale for closed-end questions - - no other response options are permitted.
How do questions get added to the QBank?
Starting about a month before the start of each semester, deans, department heads, and all instructors will have about a six week period during which they can use an online process to add new questions to the QBank.
Questions submitted to the QBank during the online process will not be immediately added to the QBank, but will first go through a "review" process by the survey staff at UPA. Questions will not be reviewed for content, but rather to check for typos, double-barrel questions (e.g., "The readings in this class were an appropriate length and helped me to understand the course material."), and to make sure they are appropriately worded for the agree-disagree scale. In addition, we are also suggesting that to help with analysis and interpretation questions are NOT worded in the negative (e.g., "I was not satisfied with the collaborative learning group process used in this course.") or worse yet, contain a double-negative (e.g., "I was not dissatisfied with the collaborative learning group process used in this course.") If the reviewers have any concerns with any questions they will contact the person submitting the questions to go over their concerns and discuss alternative wording.
Deans and department heads will also have the opportunity to review all questions in teh QBank.
How do I select questions from the QBank to include on my section-specific ClassEvals?
Toward the middle of the semester deans, then department heads, then instructors will each have about a one week period during which they can use an online interactive process to select questions from the QBank to include on ClassEvals for their respective college, department, and/or course/sections. Simply submitting questions to the QBank does not result in those questions being added to section-specific ClassEvals - - questions must be selected from the QBank at the appropriate time. (For more details about the process, see http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/classeval/QBank.addQ.htm.)
If you have any questions about the QBank process, please contact Melissa Godwin at melissa_godwin@ncsu.edu or 515.7520. If you have questions or concerns about ClassEval in general, please contact Karen Helm at karen_helm@ncsu.edu or 515.6648, or visit the ClassEval Homepage.